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YouTube bans ‘medically unsubstantiated’ content from site

April 24, 2020, 6:36 am
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Youtube has started banning content that is in direct contradiction to the World Health Organization's guidelines. Shutterstock

By Jack Hobbs

YouTube has started banning content that is in direct contradiction to the World Health Organization’s guidelines as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the United States.

The Google-owned company also announced that it will be removing conspiracy theory videos that say that COVID-19 is directly linked to 5G cell service.

Chief executive, Susan Wojcicki said in a statement that “anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations” are a violation of their policy.

“So people saying, ‘Take vitamin C, take turmeric, we’ll cure you,’ those are the examples of things that would be a violation of our policy,” she told CNN.

Wojcicki also added that in the world’s current state, the site has seen a 75 percent increase in demand for new from credible sources.

Youtube isn’t the only site that is taking tougher steps to help stem the flow of misinformation.  Read more >>
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92 percent of inmates tested for COVID-19 at Indiana prison receive positive results

April 24, 2020, 6:39 am
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© Getty Images

By Aris Folley

The vast majority of inmates that were tested for COVID-19 at a prison in Westville, Ind., have been diagnosed with the virus, officials revealed this week.

The District 1 Hospital Emergency Planning Committee, which spans several counties in the state, disclosed the findings at a meeting this week, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

The group said about 92 percent of the 137 inmates tested for the virus at the Westville Correctional Facility have received positive results.

According to the Indiana Department of Correction, the medium security facility has a population of about 3,200 inmates. The 128 infected inmates counted at the prison so far make up the majority of the 238 confirmed cases of the virus recorded among offenders in the state, according to data from the department.  Read more >>
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Bahamas: BAMSI donates produce from Student Farm

April 24, 2020, 6:51 am
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By Deandrea S. Hamilton

#Nassau, Bahamas, April 22nd, 2020: HEALTHCARE officials and law enforcement officers throughout the Commonwealth of the Bahamas have been challenged with unprecedented workloads as they work to contain Covid-19 and minimize its effects on Bahamians.

First responders in North Andros received a special token of thanks recently as the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) donated freshly harvested produce including romaine lettuce, beets and onions. The donation was the result of hard work and skill of the BAMSI students who grew these and other produce, on the student farm plot as part of their Farm Skills course.

The Farm Skills course is designed to give students hands-on experience in the areas of farming, aquaponics and marine science. The theoretical aspect is covered in a traditional classroom, while students rotate onto the farm, the marine environs and the aquaponics facility allowing them to practice what they have learnt.  Read more >>
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PLP task force call for gradual COVID-19 testing of up to 10 percent of population

April 24, 2020, 6:54 am
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By Royston Jones Jr.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) COVID-19 Task Force today urged the government to increase testing for COVID-19 with an aim to capture at least one percent of the population and gradually increase to 10 percent — around 40,000 people.

It said manpower and financial resources allocated for both molecular PCR testing and serological or rapid testing must be increased in order to gauge the epidemiology of the virus.

According to the task force, it should be the goal of health officials to test one percent of the population — around 4,000 people — and gradually increase to 10 percent of 40,000 people.

“This may seem ambitious, but it is necessary if we wish to position ourselves to open the economy in the near future,” the PLP task force said.

The task force also recommended additional training in sample collection for all healthcare professionals involved in the process to limit false negatives, and improve the overall accuracy of the exercise.  Read more >>
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Churches Press For Services To Resume

April 24, 2020, 7:02 am
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Bishop Delton Fernander, President of the Christian Council. Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT
ts-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Christian Council wants churches to reopen next month under strict guidelines to keep congregants safe from contracting the deadly coronavirus. “We have a letter we would have written to the Prime Minister about our phased approach to opening and so we just await the date,” said Bishop Delton Fernander, president, Bahamas Christian Council.

“It’s a letter on what we would do in terms of seating, sanitising stations, no gathering, or welcoming or touching. Once we get a start date, we will then start our denominational training for churches.”

Bishop Fernander said the letter was sent to the Prime Minister on Monday, but the Council has not yet received a reply. “We know he is considering opening the churches and when he decides on the date he is planning opening then he will communicate that to us. All that is depending on the numbers (of COVID-19 cases) and how the country is going. We need to determine if it’s community spread or it’s institutionally spread. Both of them have different connotations and I don’t want to put that out there, but those two parameters will determine whether we can open sometime in May.”

The Council’s letter to the Prime Minister made it clear its members were aware of the importance of preventative measures.  Read more >>
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No date yet to end curfew, lockdown

April 24, 2020, 7:06 am
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By Rachel Knowles

While health officials were unable to say how long curfew and lockdown measures will likely remain in effect, Dr. Merceline Dahl-Regis, health consultant to the prime minister, said yesterday that they will continue past the end of April.

Asked if it is the recommendation of the task force that the lockdowns continue past April, Dahl-Regis said: “The answer is yes.”

Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands said he has no idea when the country will begin to reopen.

“The more adherent we are to these interventions and initiatives, the sooner this will end,” he said.

“And then, we will have to be deliberate, cautious and careful in a methodical rollout of the reopening. At this point, we have no time for that. We have no date when that is going to happen.”  Read more >>
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COMMENTARY BY OSWALD T. BROWN -BCC seeking to reopen churches under "strict guidelines" next month

April 24, 2020, 4:08 pm
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Oswald T. Brown, Editor - Bahamas Chronicle

WASHINGTON, D.C.,  April 24, 2020 – Clearly, these “operational guidelines” for the churches to return to “business-as-usual” have a great deal of merit. Indeed, according to The Tribune’s article: “The Council says it believes with the introduction of these new operational standards, churches will be able to maintain their civic mandate as the ‘moral standard bearers’ for The Bahamas while fulfilling its divine mandate as ‘heaven’s representatives’ on the earth.”

Although I do not question the sincerity of the BCC in wanting to establish an atmosphere for its member-churches to resume their “divine mandate as heaven’s representatives,” I simply can’t erase from my mind the conclusion I reached a long time ago that there are far too many spiritual charlatans in The Bahamas who shroud themselves in religious vestments and purport to be servants of the Lord. I strongly believe that what some of them are mostly concerned about are the restrictions COVID-19 has imposed on their “businesses” that are denying them their lucrative weekly tithes from devoted church members.

Undoubtedly, there are some church leaders in The Bahamas who have made a genuine and total commitment to being “disciples” of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but because The Bahamas has a well-established reputation of being a Christian Nation, there are some so-called Christian leaders who could not possibly make the kind of money they are making weekly preaching the gospel from the pulpit.  Read more >>
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Experts hoping for COVID-19 cases “peak” this week

April 24, 2020, 4:28 pm
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Dr. Merceline Dahl-Regis

By Royston Jones Jr.

Expanded testing in New Providence, GB, and numerous Family Islands.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Health officials hope cases of COVID-19 in The Bahamas will peak within a week, though this heavily depends on how well the public follows social distancing guidelines and other measures.

“A lot is going to depend on the cases and how the country performs in terms of the measures already put in place — social distancing, no large gatherings of more than 10 [people], hand washing and all the measures that you have been promoting in your media,” said Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis, health consultant to the Office of the Prime Minister, during a broadcasted press conference on Thursday.

Asked when cases could peak based on data modeling, Dahl-Regis said: “Let us hope that it is this week. We are following it very closely, but I’m unable to say because each week, based on the findings, we have to look at the various models and see what fits the data.”

She continued: “If they are adhered to and if our case presentations warrant it, we would certainly revise our recommendations.”

Health experts have recommended no further relaxation of restrictions, though it remains to be seen whether complete lockdowns will be announced for the month of May.  Read more >>
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Is This Why Detroiters are Dying from the Coronavirus?

April 25, 2020, 5:09 am
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Rabbi Yosef Chesed carries water for distribution at the Brightmoor Connection Food Pantry in Detroit, March 23, 2020. Photo by AP Photo/Paul Sancya.

By Heather Smith

Maureen Taylor first learned about the existence of COVID-19 in January, scrolling through the BBC website. A few weeks later, a contact at the United Auto Workers told her that Ford’s factories in China were shut down because of the virus. “So Ford knew,” said Taylor, “Ford knew in February.”

Then news reports about COVID-19 began appearing on local television. Avoid gathering in groups, the newscasters said. Stay isolated and don’t go into work if you are feeling ill. Above all, wash your hands. 

Taylor couldn’t believe what she was seeing. As chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), an anti-poverty group with roots in the civil rights movement and the Poor People’s Campaign, and a founding member of the People’s Water Board, Taylor knew far too much about who in Michigan was actually able to follow this advice.

“It was enraging,” said Taylor, “to hear these voices on TV telling people to wash and wash and wash and wash your hands, when you know that people don’t have any water.”

In 2019, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) cut service to 23,473 homes whose occupants had fallen behind on their bills—a 44 percent increase over the year before. In January of 2020, an investigative report by Bridge Magazine found that 9,500 of those homes were still without water (DWSD disputed this, saying that according to their own internal documents, the number was about half that). Even after water was shut off, DWSD charged each household $27 a month for being connected to the city sewer system.  Read more >>
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‘We will not have a vaccine by next winter.’ Like 1918 flu, CDC says second wave of coronavirus could be worse. So what next?

April 25, 2020, 5:16 am
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‘The 1918 Spanish flu’s second wave was even more devastating than the first wave,’ says Ravina Kullar, an infectious-disease expert with the Infectious Diseases Society of America and adjunct faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles. MarketWatch photo illustration/Getty Images

 By Quentin Fottrell

America is staring down a widespread COVID-19 testing shortage with no vaccine in sight. So what happens when coronavirus makes its unceremonious return?

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than three decades, said Wednesday, “We will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that.” He previously said the “ultimate game changer” will be a vaccine, but that could take 12 to 18 months.

“Whether or not it’s going to be big or small is going to depend on our response,” Fauci said at President Trump’s daily press briefing. Trump added, “It’s not going to be what we’ve gone through, in any way, shape or form.” Not all experts, however, agree with that assessment.  Read more >>
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The coronavirus crisis has exposed China's long history of racism

April 25, 2020, 5:22 am
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Today Africans in Guangzhou are being demonised over Covid-19, but the roots of this prejudice go back centuries.

‘Africans in Guangzhou have been refused entry by hospitals, hotels, supermarkets, shops and food outlets.’ Photograph: Alex Plavevski/EPA

By  Hsiao-Hung Pai

“Clean up the foreign trash!”. “Don’t turn our hometown into an international rubbish dump.” “This is China, not Nigeria!” Resembling the anti-migrant racist hatred you frequently see on UK social media, these are just a few examples of countless anti-African rants from Weibo users in China in a surge of popular racism over the past month.

Despite the huge amount of censorship on China’s social media, none of these posts have been removed. Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have become the primary target of suspicion, racial discrimination and abuse amid public fear of a second wave of Covid-19. And this intolerance has peaked in Guangzhou, a city of 12 million people in the highly industrialised Guangdong province.

It started with the local government in Guangzhou implementing surveillance, conducting compulsory testing and enforcing a 14-day quarantine for all African nationals – even if they had earlier been tested negative and hadn’t recently travelled outside China. In Yuexiu district, the largest African migrant community in China, many Africans were evicted by landlords – despite having paid their rents – and left to sleep rough on the streets.  Read more >>
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Healthy people in their 30s and 40s, barely sick with COVID-19, are dying from strokes

April 25, 2020, 5:30 am
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Many researchers suspect strokes in novel coronavirus patients may be a direct consequence of blood problems that are producing clots all over some people's bodies.

By Ariana Eunjung Cha

Thomas Oxley wasn’t even on call the day he received the page to come into Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. There weren’t enough doctors to treat all the emergency stroke patients, and he was needed in the operating room.

The patient’s chart appeared unremarkable at first glance. He was male, no medications, no history of chronic conditions. He had been feeling fine, hanging out at home during the lockdown like the rest of America, when suddenly, he had trouble talking and moving the right side of his body. Imaging showed a large blockage on the left side of his head.

Oxley gasped when he got to the patient’s age and COVID-19 status: 44, positive.

The man was among several recent stroke patients in their 30s to 40s who were all infected with the virus. The median age for that type of severe stroke is 74.

As Oxley, an interventional neurologist, began the procedure to remove the clot, he observed something he had never seen before. On the monitors, the brain typically shows up as a tangle of black squiggles – “like a can of spaghetti,” he said – that provide a map of blood vessels. A clot shows up as a blank spot. As he used a needlelike device to pull out the clot, he saw new clots forming in real time around it.  Read more >>
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Scientists in Italy find coronavirus on air pollution particles

April 25, 2020, 5:38 am
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In preliminary study, researchers detect distinct virus genes on airborne pollutants, suggesting disease could travel farther by air than previously assumed.

A worker sprays disinfectant to sanitize Duomo square in downtown Milan, Italy, March 31, 2020. (AP/Luca Bruno)

In a preliminary study, scientists in Italy detected the coronavirus on particles of air pollution.

It is still unclear whether the virus is viable or able to cause infections when carried by pollution, according to The Guardian, which first publicized the findings on Friday.

The study has not yet been peer-reviewed, but previous studies and experts suggest the premise could be valid, and should be researched further.

If true, the virus could travel farther by air than previously assumed. It could also explain the high rate of infection in heavily polluted northern Italy.  Read more >>
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Six new coronavirus symptoms just officially added to CDC list. What are they?

April 25, 2020, 5:47 am
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It doesn’t take long for mild coronavirus symptoms to turn serious. These virtual reality images show how the virus can invade the lungs and kill. BY THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Mike Stunson

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tripled the number of coronavirus symptoms it lists on its website.

The federal organization previously listed fever, cough and shortness of breath as symptoms of COVID-19. The CDC has added six additional symptoms as people “have had a wide range of symptoms reported,” it says on its website.

New symptoms for the disease now include “chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell,” the CDC said.  Read more >>
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Saudi Arabia to abolish flogging - supreme court

April 25, 2020, 6:36 am
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The flogging of blogger Raif Badawi led to an international outcry.

Saudi Arabia is to abolish flogging as a form of punishment, according to a legal document seen by media outlets.

The directive from the Gulf kingdom's Supreme Court says flogging will be replaced by imprisonment or fines.

It says this is an extension of human rights reforms brought by King Salman and his son, the country's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.  Read more >>
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Facebook launches ‘Messenger Rooms’ as a Zoom and Group FaceTime alternative

April 25, 2020, 6:42 am
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 By Michael Potuck

Facebook is out today with a new product to connect multiple people via video chat and compete with popular offerings like Zoom, Group FaceTime, Skype, Houseparty, and more.

Detailed by TechCrunch, Facebook announced a number of messaging updates today with the biggest news being the ability to start a group video chat with Messengers Rooms feature.

Launching today on mobile and desktop, you can start a video chat Room that friends can discover via a new section above the News Feed or notifications Facebook will automatically send to your closest pals. You can also just invite specific friends, or share a link anyone can use to join your Room.

For now, the feature is quite limited compared to Zoom and even Group FaceTime. However, that will expand over time and true to its vision of merging messaging, Rooms will arrive for Instagram, WhatsApp, and Portal in the future.  Read more >>
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‘No evidence’ antibodies protect recovered coronavirus patients, WHO says

April 25, 2020, 6:55 am
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WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - Denis Balibouse/Reuters

By Sara Dorn

No evidence exists that people who have recovered from the coronavirus are protected from reinfection, even if they have antibodies, the World Health Organization said Saturday.

The warning from the U.N.’s health arm runs counter to what many survivors thought could be their ticket to freedom from COVID-19 lockdowns.

“Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies … could serve as the basis for an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate,'” the WHO said.

“There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”  Read more >>
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U.S. coronavirus death toll doubles in 10 days to more than 50,000: Reuters tally

April 25, 2020, 7:03 am
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Healthcare workers load a person into an ambulance outside of the Elmhurst Hospital center as the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the neighborhood of Queens in New York, U.S., April 5, 2020. REUTERS / Eduardo Munoz

By Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) - The U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus reached 50,000 on Friday, having doubled in 10 days, according to a Reuters tally.

More than 875,000 Americans have contracted the highly contagious respiratory illness COVID-19 caused by the virus, and on average about 2,000 have died every day this month, according to a Reuters tally.

The true number of cases is thought to be higher, with state public health officials cautioning that shortages of trained workers and materials have limited testing capacity.

Deaths are also likely higher, as most states only count hospital and nursing home victims and not those who died at home. About 40% of the deaths have occurred in New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, followed by New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts.  Read more >>
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Bill Gates: ‘I wish I could say that we’re halfway through’ coronavirus pandemic

April 25, 2020, 7:15 am
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Bill Gates -Gerard Miller | CNBC

By Tom Huddleston Jr.

Billionaire Bill Gates continues to be one of the most outspoken public figures on the subject of coronavirus, which the Microsoft co-founder has dubbed “the first modern pandemic.”

Gates has also made it clear that he sees the pandemic as a “nightmare” and an era-defining event whose effects will linger for years. “It’s going to be awhile before things go back to normal,” Gates said in a new interview on Friday with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on the “TODAY” show.

“I wish I could say that we’re halfway through. But I don’t think so,” Gates added.

That’s because the billionaire believes the United States is still several months, if not years, away from large-scale production of a coronavirus vaccine. Still, he is hopeful that a vaccine will arrive sooner, rather than later.  Read more >>
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Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line to Resume Sailings in June

April 25, 2020, 7:22 am
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The company's Celebration cruise ship.

By Caribbean Journal Staff

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, which has long operated cruises from Florida to The Bahamas, says it plans to resume sailings on June 13.

The company will be relaunching its Grand Celebration ship on that date; its Grand Classica cruise ship will resume sailings on July 10, it said.

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line operates cruises from Florida to Grand Bahama and Nassau.

“We appreciate the support of our valued guests, partners, regulatory agencies, staff, and crew during this challenging time,” said Oneil Khosa, CEO, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line. “We are utilizing this time to ensure that we are ready for our guests once we resume cruising. Travelers will be seeking a quick and safe getaway once leisure travel fully restores, and we look forward to welcoming them onboard for a unique, short-cruise getaway to paradise!”

For more, visit Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line.  (source)
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